1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the measurement of biomedical data, and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for measuring biomedical data and a measurement strip.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the recent increases in geriatric disease and cardiac disorder prevalence rate in the middle-aged, consumers have a growing interest in the measurement of cholesterol and triglyceride.
The amount of total cholesterol within serums, blood plasma or blood has been known as one of the best biomedical data for evaluating a danger of coronary arteriosclerosis. If someone has a doubt about a danger of his or her arteriosclerosis, it would be better to measure the amount of total cholesterol. However, since a recent clinical study has revealed that there is a positive correlation between the amount of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and coronary arteriosclerosis, the measurement of the amount of LDL is more useful than the measurement of the amount of total cholesterol. Furthermore, higher-value triglyceride suggests a danger of atherosclerosis, which may result in a danger of angina pectoris, cardiac infarction or cerebral apoplexy. Accordingly, the measurement of the value of triglyceride is also meaningful.
Such types of biomedical data may be measured using different measuring apparatuses or one measuring apparatus. If a measuring apparatus is required for each type of biomedical data, it will be inefficient and troublesome. In order to measure several types of biomedical data using one measuring apparatus, the measuring apparatus must be informed of the types of measurement. Although a user may set the type of measurement by entering a key, this causes inconvenience to the user.
A scheme in which an electrical resistor, a barcode or an optical code is attached to a measurement strip and a measuring apparatus detects this is possible. However, this scheme entails the increase in cost and the inconvenience in fabrication.